The present invention relates to bearing assemblies, and more particularly to bearing assemblies for washing machine drums
Bearing assemblies for rotatably supporting washing machine drums are known. In certain applications, the bearing assembly can be “co-molded”, i.e., molded together, with the washing machine tub so as to become an integral part of the tub itself, which facilitates the washing machine assembly operations. Such a bearing assembly typically include two roller bearings arranged along an axis of rotation of a washing machine drum, a spacer interposed between the two bearings, and a cylindrical housing sleeve. The sleeve is often made of a plastic material and by co-molding around the two bearings and the spacer.
When the bearing assembly has been co-molded with the tub, a shaft of the drum is inserted through the bearing assembly itself in such a way as to engage both bearings and to protrude axially from the tub in order to be engaged kinetically with a motor of the washing machine. At the end opposite the one engaged with the motor, i.e. on what is known as the “wet” side, and corresponds to the interior of the tub, the drum shaft also passes through a seal which prevents liquids from entering the bearing assembly and which is fitted inside a seat created in the tub in a position that is coaxial with the axis of rotation of the shaft itself.
The extreme severity of the current conditions of co-molding by injection due to the very short production times and to the high injection pressures and temperatures has made the creation of the aforesaid seat highly critical in order to prevent irreversible deformations which, in the long term, could compromise the tightness capacities of the seal itself.